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Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:25:33 +0100Joomla! - Open Source Content Managementen-gbEconomic Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region and the One Belt One Road Initiative: A Threat or an Opportunity?https://idn-indepthnews.net/index.php/the-world/asia-pacific/1751-economic-cooperation-in-the-indian-ocean-region-and-the-one-belt-one-road-initiative-a-threat-or-an-opportunity
https://idn-indepthnews.net/index.php/the-world/asia-pacific/1751-economic-cooperation-in-the-indian-ocean-region-and-the-one-belt-one-road-initiative-a-threat-or-an-opportunity

Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona

The writer is former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations and former Foreign Secretary. – The Editor

COLOMBO (IDN) – The Indian Ocean region is experiencing a fondly anticipated luxury. Almost every one of the economies of the region is expanding at a rate that gives hope to the entire region, especially to its poor and marginalised. The promise of prosperity enthusiastically proclaimed at independence from colonial rule, so many decades ago, may at last become a reality. India is powering ahead with an anticipated growth rate of 7.3% and now is ahead of China.

TORONTO (IDN) – Ahead of the next hurricane season in the Caribbean, faith leaders are calling for action from government leaders, the United Nations system, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and regional development institutions.

A statement signed and endorsed by 22 religious leaders from Grenada to Saint Lucia is urging the establishment of debt relief as an instrument for emergency support and reconstruction.

"Across the Caribbean, we still see immense suffering from the hurricanes that landed last year," said Jubilee USA Executive Director Eric LeCompte who endorsed the statement. "Islands that are struggling to recover after natural disasters and meet basic needs of their people should not be making debt payments."

BERLIN (IDN) – The number of tourists around the world grew in 2017 to an all-time record of 7 percent to reach 1.3 billion. Tourism accounts for 10 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP), 10 percent of the world’s jobs, and 7 percent of the world’s total exports.

The need to turn these figures into benefits for all people and all communities, "leaving no one behind" – as required by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations in September 2015 – was also the subject of ITB 2018, the Berlin travel trade fair in March.

VIENNA (IDN) – Women are under-represented at the managerial and leadership levels within the United Nations system. The world body intends to mend this situation and achieve gender parity at all levels by 2028.

But indications are that it's going be an uphill task. Statistics published by UN Women, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, show that at the current average annual increment from the P-3 to upper-managerial levels it would take on average 22 years to achieve gender parity in all United Nations agencies. In line with the status of gender parity at a global scale it will take 217 years.

VIENNA (IDN) – Enhancing international cooperation to combat the synthetic opioid crisis, removing stigma as a barrier to the availability and delivery of health care and social services for people who use drugs is part of eleven resolutions the 61st session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) has endorsed. The five-day gathering from March 12-16 in Vienna also started preparations for the CND's ministerial segment at the 2019 session.

Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message at the opening session of the 61st Commission on Narcotic Drugs: "With the UN General Assembly special session consensus as our blueprint, we can promote efforts to stop organized crime while protecting human rights, enabling development and ensuring rights-based treatment and support."

DHAKA (IDN) – John Bob Ranck, also known as Bob, Chief Executive Officer and President at Orbis International, recently visited Bangladesh on a special mission. He travelled to some of the hospitals where Orbis as a partner has been supporting Bangladesh’s efforts in addressing avoidable blindness.

Bob, a retired United States Air Force Brigadier General, came to Bangladesh a few weeks after the memorable visit of the teaching hospital or better known as the Flying Eye Hospital’s (FEH) training programme in Bangladesh.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Obama Foundation, which aims "to inspire and empower people to change their world", is launching a 'Leaders Africa Program', and is seeking to identify a group of emerging African leaders from all sectors – government, civil society, and the private sector.

They should have demonstrated a commitment to advancing the common good, reports New York based africa.com. "The objective of the program is to build a growing network of innovative and ethical changemakers, who seek to drive positive change in their communities."

NEW YORK (IDN) – A group of Sri Lankan academics teaching in educational institutions abroad – and numbering about 50 – has written to condemn ongoing violence against Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, especially the “brutal attacks” perpetrated early March.

In a letter published by 'Groundviews', they say: “We are outraged that the government has failed to act speedily and decisively to stop the violence and bring those responsible to justice. The government must act firmly to prevent more destruction and bloodshed.”

ROME (IDN) – Has Turkey changed under Erdoğan? The question may seem absurd due to the habit of considering Turkey a secular and Westernised country before Recep Erdoğan came to power.

However, this consolidated image turns out to be false. There has been a change, but not in substance: what has changed is its exteriority. In fact, albeit with periodic recourse to elections, the country has always been governed in an authoritarian way, and today this feature is only more evident and its quality is more pronounced.

LONDON (IDN) – One of the many challenges facing today's world is corruption and one sector in which this is particularly evident is that of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Controlled by national governments, SOEs rank among the largest companies in the world, often serving as some of the biggest employers in their country. They are central to the daily lives of citizens, providing critical goods and public services in sectors such as transport, utilities, telecommunications and health. If they are corrupt, the impact filters down to all aspects of society.

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The seemingly eternal president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has an iron grip on his nation and a foreign policy to match. A large majority of Russians give him their support. He will win re-election.

Is it his early economic success? Or is it because of a new stability? Or the nation’s growing self-respect after the ignominious years that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union? Or is it a sense of besieged defensiveness because of the advantage the West took of Russia afterwards.

NEW YORK (IDN) – An extended visit to Africa by the U.S. Secretary of State to mend fences after President’ Donald Trump's crude description of African and the Caribbean countries was cut short March 13 by the dismissal of the embattled Secretary Rex Tillerson.

President Trump had announced such a visit in late January. In a letter to all African leaders, he reportedly described the purpose of the "extended" visit as reaffirming "the partnerships and values we share with the African Union, member states and citizens across the continent".

"… my administration, I believe, has had the most successful year in the history of the Presidency," Donald Trump, Conservative Political Action Conference, Maryland, February 23, 2018.

MELBOURNE, Australia (IDN) – Since it is generally agreed that one week is a long time in politics, it is time to ask, at the end of one year, how far have America’s stature grown since Donald Trump set out “to make America great again.” From the first step he took to march on the road to White House he has been chanting the mantra of “making America great” which also translates into “putting America first”. They are two shades of the same slogan.

This is the fifth of a five-part article looking at US foreign policy in historical context and its global implications under President Donald Trump.

BERGAMO, Italy (IDN) – If Trump wanted to be unpredictable, he certainly succeeded. It is the reason for the uncertainty, confusion and variety of assessments about the course of his foreign policy.

Unpredictability itself is destabilising and can be understood as an effective strategy against an opponent, but against allies? And for how long can it work? How useful is it for the credibility of the aims pursued? Is it not the attitude of a poker player inclined to bluffing? And what happens when the other players want to "see" the cards?

NEW DELHI | KABUL (IDN) – The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has documented that, in 2017, 359 women were killed – five per cent more than in the previous year – and 865 injured. Altogether about 10,000 civilians lost their lives or suffered injuries in 2017.

It is against this backdrop that the UN in Afghanistan marked International Women’s Day on March 8, recognizing the global movement for women's rights and the work of activists who have been central to the push for gender equality.

Afghanistan ranks 154th in the UN Gender Inequality Index, and this year’s Women's Day – under the theme 'Time Is Now: Rural and Urban Activists Transforming Women’s Lives' – sought to draw attention to rural and urban women who are left behind in many areas of development.